Hand-operated knitting machine



June 19, 1956 E. PILTZ 2,750,771

HAND-OPERATED KNITTING MACHINE rsm ma'mngb 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 14, 1954 Fig.3

E. PILTZ 2,750,771

HAND-OPERATED KNITTING MACHINE June 19, 1956 Filed Dec. 14. 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Fig.6 23 m United States Patent HAND-OPERATED KNITTING MACHINE Erich Piltz, Markdorf, Baden, Germany, assiguor to Willy Werner Lcnkeit, Markdorf, Baden, Germany Application December 14, 1954, Serial No. 475,258 I Claims priority, application Germany December 24, 1953 9 Claims. (Cl. 66-6) This invention relates to hand-operated knitting machines and more particularly to knitting machines of' the type disclosed in my co-pending patent application Ser. No. 409,463, filed February 10, 1954, for Knitting Machine for Knitting Plain and Purled Stitches.

The knitting machine described in said co-pending application 409,463, for alternate knitting of plain and purled stitches comprises a preferably horizontally arranged needle bed in which the knitting needles lie side by side, an eccentric lock movable perpendicularly to the longitu dinal direction of the machine knitting needles and carrying a thread guide and a stitch stripper or repusher, and a looping comb, the upward directed teeth of which are arranged between said knitting needles. The machine comprises an additional or auxiliary comb, which is arranged in front of the looping comb and has substantially vertically extending needles, the head of which is designed in such manner that it is capable of retaining the thread on the needle shaft, whereby the needles of the auxiliary comb are arranged between the horizontal machine knitting needles, in the insertion of the thread by the thread guide or carrier, for taking up every second stitch of a stitch row. The stationary needles of the auxiliary comb are preferably designed as machine knitting needles and are exchangeable. It'is also preferred to vertically movably fasten the auxiliary comb on the front sides of an underframe or substructure. A vertically movable knock over bar is provided for knocking stitches from the needles of the auxiliary comb. The distance between the needles of the auxiliary comb amounts substantially to twice the distance between the looping needles.

It has now been found that the structure and operation of this machine can be considerably simplified by supporting the auxiliary or supplementary comb between two holding arms for motion in approximately vertical direction, said pair of arms being rigidly connected to the smaller or front sides of the underframe, a knocking-off rail being attached to said arms.

Preferably the supplementary comb is provided with means for guiding the same parallel to itself, such as a rope guiding mechanism, and is approximately vertically displaceable by means of a rotatably supported lever mechanism, one arm of which is coupled with the supplementary comb, while a detent means or device is provided on the other arm of the lever mechanism, so as to enable the supplementary comb to be shifted to an upper,

Furthermore, it has been found preferable to provide the knocking-off rail with an upper edge having one rounded side turned toward the needle bed, while its other side turned toward the supplementary comb is formed as ash'a'rp edge; As an effect of this special profile of the knocking-off rail, the old stitches located on the needles of the supplementary comb find a resistance at the sharp edge of the knocking-off rail when the supplementary comb carries out a movement in downward direction so that the old stitches are easily knocked over, while the resistance of the rounded edge in the subsequent upward an intermediate, and a lower position.

2,750,771 Patented June 19, 1956 "ice movement of the supplementary comb is rather small so that the pullexerted on the stitches by the tension weights is not rendered inefiective.

Furthermore, it has been found advisable to connect the holding arms of the device according to the invention with the underframe by two pairs of holding screws arranged at opposite sides of the underframe. If it is intended to make the needle bed available for the production of plain knitting and thereby to eliminate the device of the invention, the front screws are loosened so that the holding arms can be swung to the back about the rear screws.

In the appended drawings an embodiment of the invention to which the invention is not limited, is illustrated by way of example. In the drawings Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the complete device according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a top view of the device shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a cross section along the line IIIIII of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 shows part of the elements shown in Fig. 3 in a different operative position in which the thread is put on a needle of the supplementary comb in intermediate position;

Fig. 5 shows the elements shown in Fig. 4 in still another operative position, in which the thread is caught in a closed needle hook of the supplementary comb;

Fig. 6 is a side elevation on an enlarged scale of the lower part of Fig. 1;

Fig. 7 is a cross-section along the line VIIVII of Fig. 6; and

Fig. 8 is a cross-section taken along the line VIIIVIII of Fig. 6.

Referring now to the drawings and first to Figs. 1-3, a needle bed 1 is arranged above an underframe or substructure la. The needle bed 1 is provided with a plurality of knitting needles 2 arranged in parallel and having equal distances from one another. A lock 3 is provided with two arms 3b and 3c and a middle arm 3a carrying at its end a thread guide 4 cooperating with a stitch stripper or repusher 5 over which the arms 3b and 3c of the lock 3 slide. A looping comb 6 is arranged on one side of the needle bed 1 and of the substructure 1a and is provided with a plurality of looping needles 6a arranged at equal distances from one another and at right angles to the knitting needles 2. A supplementary comb 7 is provided with a plurality of equidistant needles 8 arranged parallel to the looping needles 6a and spaced apart from one'another by twice the distance of the looping needles 6a. The needles 8 are provided with latches 8a. The parts 1 to 8a are more fully disclosed in my copending-application Ser. No. 409,463, mentioned hereinabove.

Referring now to all the figures, holding arms 9 are rig idly connected with the smaller or front sides of the underframe 1a by screws 10 and 10a. A knocking-01f rail 11 is screwed to the holding arms 9 and extends between the looping comb 6 and the supplementary comb 7. Two ropes 12, eachextending from a screw 12a over a roller 12b on one arm 9, under a roller 12b on the other arm and to the top of the other arm, are attached to a member 7a being rigid with the supplementary comb 7 which is thus guided parallel to itself by the ropes 12.

v A lever mechanism generally denoted by reference numeral 13 comprises a lever arm 15 and a lever arm 16. The lever mechanism 13 is attached to the cylindrical "part 19 of a screw 20 connecting the lever mechanism 13 with oneof the, arms 9. A stirrup 14, Fig. 8, engages with one end thereof a boring of the lever arm 15 whereas the other end of the stirrup 14 engages a boring of a lever 26 connected with the pivot 27 of the rollers 12b.

The lever arm 16 carries a leaf spring 21 held in position by a screw 29 and pressing a steel ball 22 abutting against one of three recesses such as 28, 28a provided in a rest plate 23 secured to the holding arm 9.

A roller bearing 24 is rigidly connected with the supplementary comb 7 and cooperates in the lowermost position thereof with a fixed member 25 connected to the underframe in and acting as a stop means limiting the motion of supplementary comb 7.

The knocking-off rail 11 is provided with a rounded upper edge 17, which is rounded at the side turning toward the needle bed 1 and the substructure 1a and a sharp upper edge is turning toward the supplementary comb 7.

The operation of this device is as follows:

At first the stitches of the article to be knitted are hung in the manner described in more detail in the above mentioned co-pending application Ser. No. 409,463, alternately on two needles 2 of the ordinary needle bed 1 and on one needle 8 of the supplementary comb 7, which is in its middle position then. The stitches hanging from the needles 3 of the supplementary comb 7 slide under the effect of the tension weights behind the latches 8a. Since the lever arm 15 of the lever mechanism 13 is rotatably attached to the cylindrical part 19 of the screw 20, the leaf spring 21 connected to the other arm 16 of the lever mechanism 13 presses the steel ball 22 against the rest plate 23, the steel ball engaging the recesses 28a, 28, respectively, when the supplemental comb 7 is in the lower and middle position thereof, as seen in Figs. 1 and 2. If the supplemental comb 7 is in the lowermost position thereof as seen in Figs. 1 and 2, the motion of the lever arm 15 is limited by the roller bearing 24 which comes to rest against the fixed stop member. Subsequently, the supplementary comb 7 is brought again into the middle position thereof by means of the lever mechanism 13 and detent device 16. By actuation on needle bed 1 of the eccentric lock 3, which is provided with thread guide 4 and stitch stripper 5, the fresh thread is inserted into the open hooks of the needles 2 lying in needle bed 1 and is placed on the open latches 8a of needles 8 of supplementary comb 7. The supplementary comb 7 is then shifted into the lowermost position thereof by means of the lever mechanism 13 and the detent device 16. Thereby the old stitches hanging from the needles 8 close the latches 8a, catch the inserted thread in the closed needle hooks and find so much resistance on the upper sharp edge 13 turned toward supplementary comb 7 of the knocking-off rail 11 which is rigidly secured to the holding arms 9 between the needle bed 1 and the supplementary comb 7, that the old stitches easily knock over under formation of new stitches.

However, at the subsequent raising of the supplementary comb 7, the resistance at the rounded upper edge 17 of the knocking-off rail 11 on the side turned toward the needle bed 1 is only quite small so that the tension weights may have their full etfect.

Since, of course, in the meantime formation of opposite stitches has taken place at the looping comb 6 on needles 2 lying between the vertical needles 8 of the supplementary comb 7, a row of stitches has been formed, which consists of alternating right and left stitches.

The stirrup 14 may be inserted with the end 14' thereof into any of the outer holes of the lever 26 according to the angular position of the lever mechanism 13 and the lever arm 15.

In order to free the needle bed 1 for plain knitting, the screws securing holding arms 9 at both end faces of underframe 1a, are loosened, whereupon the entire device can be swung toward the back about screws 10a which are likewise secured to the underframe 1a, and thus the device put out of operation.

What is claimed is:

1. A hand-operated knitting machine for alternate knitting of plain and purled stitches, comprising, in combination, a stationary needle bed having a stationary un' derframe, a plurality of knitting needles lying side by side and being movable in said needle bed in a predetermined direction, an eccentric lock movable perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of said knitting needles, said lock being provided with a thread guide and a stitch stripper; a looping comb having a plurality of looping needles extending in substantially perpendicular direction to said predetermined direction of said knitting needles, a supplementary comb having a plurality of supplementary needles arranged for motion parallel to said perpendicular direction, said supplementary needles being arranged at a distance which is equal to about twice the distance between said looping needles, a pair of arms holding said supplementary comb movably in said perpendicular direction, said pair of arms being rigidly connected to the smaller sides of said underframe, and a knocking-off rail being arranged between said needle bed and said supplementary comb and attached to said arms.

2. A knitting machine as claimed in claim 1, comprising a rotatably supported lever mechanism for moving the supplementary comb in said perpendicular direction, one arm of said lever mechanism being coupled with the supplementary comb and a detent device connected with a second arm of the lever mechanism.

3. A knitting machine as claimed in claim 1, comprising a rotatably supported lever mechanism for moving the supplementary comb in said perpendicular direction, one arm of said lever mechanism being coupled with the supplementary comb and a detent device connected with a second arm of the lever mechanism; and means for guiding the supplementary comb parallel to itself.

4. A knitting machine as claimed in claim 1, in which the knocking 01f rail has a rounded upper edge at its side turned toward the needle bed and a sharp upper edge at its side turned toward the supplementary comb.

5. A knitting machine as claimed in claim 1, in which the holding arms are connected to each of the two sides of the underframe by means of first and second screws, and the holding arms are swingable, upon loosening the first screws, about the second screws, for setting free the needle bed for plain knitting.

6. A knitting machine as claimed in claim 1, a lever mechanism rotatably supported by one of said pair of arms, said lever mechanism having one arm connected with said supplementary comb, the other arm of said lever mechanism being connected with said underframe of said needle bed.

7. A knitting machine as claimed in claim 6, a member rigidly connected with said supplementary comb, and a coupling member coupling said one arm of said lever .mechanism with said member, said member having apertures for receiving one end of said coupling member.

8. A knitting machine as claimed in claim 7, a leaf spring connected to said other arm of said lever mechanism, a ball. and a rest plate being a plurality of rests for said ball, said leaf spring pressing said ball into an opening of said other arm and one of said rests of said rest plate.

9. A knitting machine as claimed in claim 8, screw means connected to said one of said pair of arms, and a part rigidly connected to said screw means and forming the fulcrum of said lever mechanism.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 110,479 Lee et al. Dec. 27, 1870 

